Emperor

Template:Navigation CR Emperor is a casual multiplayer format for Magic: the Gathering played by teams of three players. Each team has one "Emperor", who is protected by the other players.

Each team sits together on one side of the table, with team members deciding the order in which they're seated. The emperor is the player seated in the middle of the team. The remaining players on the team are "generals" (or "lieutenants" ) whose job is to protect their emperor while attempting to take down the opposing emperor. Players randomly determine which emperor will go first, generally using the high roll on dice, and turn order then progresses to the left.

Emperors have a "range of influence" of 2, which means that their spells and abilities affect only themselves and players within two seats of their own. In other words, at the start of the game, they can affect everyone except the opposing emperor. Generals have a range of influence of 1. At the start of the game, they can't affect the opposing emperor either. The only way to get an opposing emperor within your range of influence is to defeat an opposing general!

Players may attack only opponents seated immediately next to them. This means that at the beginning of the game, emperors can't attack anyone because no opponent is sitting next to them.

Each player plays as an individual. Players can collaborate by looking at each other's hands and discussing strategy, but each player keeps a separate life total (starting at 20), hand, library, battlefield, and so on. The one difference is the "deploy creatures" option. Each of the emperor's creatures has the ability "{T}: Target teammate gains control of this creature. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery." Keep in mind that when a player is eliminated from the game, all cards he or she owns (including creatures controlled by other players) are removed from the game. If that player controlled permanents that are owned by other players, they'll stay in the game and go back to whichever player should be controlling them now.

Winning and losing an Emperor game works differently than normal. A team wins the game when the opposing emperor has been eliminated. It doesn't matter whether the losing team has any generals remaining or not. This also means that a general that's been eliminated from the game can still win if his or her team eliminates the opposing emperor later on!

The Emperor format can be played with more than two teams; in that case, the appropriate Free-for-All rules are applied. The format can also be played with more than three members on each team, as long as each team has the same number. Each extra player on a team is an additional general. That means that some generals won't be sitting next to an opponent (they'll be between two teammates), so they can't attack anyone at the beginning of the game. Be sure to increase the range of influences accordingly.